ISLIP TOWN EMPLOYEE VOTED onto BOARD of ETHICS

GOP MEMBERS VOTE AGAINST NOLAN'S CHOICE

At an Islip Town Board meeting Wednesday Sept 22, 2011 Lawrence (Larry) O’Leary, Commissioner of Public Safety and Code Enforcement, was appointed as a member of the Town’s Board of Ethics by a partisan vote of 3-2.  GOP board members Steven Flotteron and Trish Bergin-Weichbrodt voted against.

For a Town employee to be a member of the Board of Ethics, according to Mr. Flotteron,   "Is just wrong."

"He's not going to be able to be unbiased",  Mr. Flotteron said in a recent interview with Freelance Investigations.  "His position, with his $103,000 dollar salary, was created by his friend and boss Phil Nolan.  Nolan controls his salary and his job and for the first time you'll have a Town employee sitting in on details of ethical concern."

Mr. O'Leary had to get a special waiver to work for the Town because he receives a pension from New York State as a retired police officer. As such, the law states he can only make up to $30,000 dollars as a part time worker and he cannot work in a government position, unless he gets the waiver.  Islip Town Supervisor Phil Nolan, signed the request for the waiver stating Mr. O'Leary's extensive police experience, prior to his retirement, was a big advantage and a main reason for his recommending the special waiver from the State of New York.

According to a July 27, 2009 letter from Richard Ciprioni, Director of Commission Operations ; Municipal Assistance for the Civil Service Commission of New York to Mr. Robert Finnegan, Director of Labor Relations for the Town of Islip:

Limited approval through October 31, 2009 was granted with the stipulation that the Town review whether the qualifications of 20 years of law enforcement experience for the position is appropriate, and to expand recruitment efforts beyond police agencies to determine if there are any qualified non-retirees available for appointment...Approvals under this section of law are considered to be of a temporary nature.  The Commission's determination is for the finite period indicated and cannot be extended without the Commission approval.

Before the original waiver was expired however, another waiver was granted for November 1, 2009  through October 31,  2011.  Then, before the second waiver could expire in 2011, another waiver request was submitted to cover the time frame of May 1, 2010 through April 30,  2012. It was also granted.

Longtime Islip resident, Patricia Montanino, took issue with Mr. O’Leary being appointed to anything with the word ethics attached. She attended the Town Board meeting prior to the vote being taken, to ask Supervisor Nolan if he intended to vote Mr. O’Leary onto the Board of Ethics.

“How can you set an example or judge anyone’s ethical standards, if you do the wrong thing yourself?  Ms. Montanino asked.  "Mr. O’Leary seems to think he is above it all.  He is not able to lead by example, because his own behavior violates the rules.”

At the Town Board meeting Ms. Montanino  referred  to a package of documents she believes supports her allegations regarding Mr. O'Leary.

Ms. Montanino  stated that over a year ago, she handed the same documentation to all the Town Board members.  The package of documents allegedly contained proof of offenses committed by Mr. O’Leary and his Code Enforcement team.  “If you are making fake permits and parking signs and building an illegal office in your own code enforcement building, how can you be on an ethics board?”  she asked.

The package included the following issues, items and documents:

1.) According to documents submitted, Mr. O’Leary allegedly issued over 100 falsified parking permits in 2010 and 2011 to persons living within two blocks of the Islip Town water park.  The permits  appeared official as they had a bar code and the Town seal and allegedly Mr. O’Leary’s signature on them.

The problem is, the bar code was from a book ISBN number.   Islip Town never made a resolution authorizing either the permits or the parking signs. Public Safety officers allegedly put the signs up in the middle of the night on telephone poles and trees within a two block radius of the water park.  This would force most people to pay the $10 parking fee in the Town owned marina lot.  Putting signs on telephone poles is against Town ordinances and LIPA rules.  If the signature is not Mr. O'Leary's, or if it was not forged and was used with his knowledge and/or permission as a memo Mr. O'Leary sent through Susan Pontillo, would indicate, the permits would still be illegal, because there was no resolution by the Town Board authorizing them.

O'Leary memo regarding second set of permits, (now they had book ISBN number added)
the first set had no bar code and didn't appear official enough, according to sources.

Emails to Kevin Bonner, Town of Islip, Public Information Officer, regarding all of these issues were not returned at time of publication.

Parking permit on dashboard of local resident's car

Sample of Permit with Bar Code ISBN # 978091889-428X

Book from ISBN Bar Code # on Parking Permits Issued by Code Enforcement in Islip Town 

No Parking Signs on Telephone Poles

"Currently, under Islip Town Code
(Article 29), it is illegal to post signs of
all types on trees and telephone poles."
according to town of Islip spokeswoman
Catherine Green, in an article from the Islip Bulletin dated December 11, 2008.

2.) An office was constructed on the third floor (attic) of the Town of Islip Code Enforcement building at 28 Nassau Avenue in Islip, even though no permits for the construction were ever obtained.  The office was newly constructed allegedly for Jason Mistretta, a code enforcement officer, but the office was ordered to be demolished by the Fire Department, after a complaint was made to the Department of Health, about the office and it’s location on the third floor, as a serious safety and fire hazard.

Pictures of a Town dump truck backed up to the building while the contents of the office were thrown out the attic window, were also given to the Town Board members.  There allegedly was no attempt to save, store or recycle the new office furniture. Building materials such as brand new doors, desk, chair, carpeting, sheetrock, molding and other items were tossed into the dump truck and discarded.  Witnesses claim the brand new doors were purposely damaged with sledge hammers as the workers were disassembling the office and its' contents.

3rd Floor Illegal Office in Code Enforcement Building

28 Nassau Avenue 3rd Floor Office

Attic windows open...items tossed into truck

Weight of truck buckles sidewalk

3.) Lacrosse balls were purchased with Town funds, yet curiously the Town has no lacrosse team.  Mr. O’Leary’s phone records on the Town cell phone show dozens of calls on Town work time, to his son’s lacrosse coach at St. Anthony’s High School in Huntington.  Many other calls were also made to Southhampton, on the Town cell phone, during work hours, to the number where the coach lives.

Six Dozen Lacrosse Balls $90 Dollars

Invoice For Lacrosse Balls for Islip Town

4.) Fifty two embroidered jackets paid for by the taxpayers were ordered for Mr. O’Leary’s Public Safety Enforcement staff.  Inquiries into the purchase however resulted in the jackets never actually being distributed. The cost for the jackets allegedly no one ever received was $1, 464.00 on June 17, 2010.

5.) Mr. O’Leary received three  special waivers from New York State to be hired at his $103,000 salary, even though he is a retired New York City Police Officer receiving a pension. That waiver application along with the approval of Alan Schneider, Director of the Town’s Civil Service Division was the reason Mr. O’Leary could make his $103,000 salary.  Mr. Schneider’s son, Robert also works for Islip Town-at McArthur airport.  Mr. Nolan stated in the papers he submitted to the State requesting the waiver, that Mr. O’Leary’s extensive police background and experience was key to his reason for hiring him and needing the waiver.  Mr. Nolan said at the time his search produced no one more qualified for the position than Mr. O’Leary.

First of three waivers:  This one dated March 2009 through March 2011

Page one of second application to State for Mr. O'Leary's Waiver
Period covered November 1, 2009 through October 31, 2011

Page two of Waiver Application

Waiver Application: Page Three
Mr. O'Leary's and Mr. Nolan's Signatures

Mr. O'Leary's Responsibilities for Islip Town

Justification for Renewal of Retiree Waiver for Mr. O'Leary

Civil Service Commission Letter to Islip Director of Labor Relations

Ms. Montanino asked with all the special training and police experience Mr. O'Leary has, something Mr. Nolan stressed when asking for the waiver, "Why then did Mr. O’Leary not get involved or even bother to show up when he received a phone call from the Public Safety Officers in Islip, regarding information they had just received from the police department warning of a credible threat of alleged gang activity with weapons for later that day?".

According to the phone message with Mr. O'Leary, the potential violence with weapons was slated to occur that night at Brookwood Hall, where a senior citizen center, a daycare facility and GOP Town Board member Trish Bergin-Weichbrodt’s office are all located.

According to an official audiotape of the call made on April 1, 2011 obtained by Freelance Investigations, Mr. O’Leary, when notified by telephone during regular business hours, that gang related violence- with weapons- was planned for later that day, his 30 second on the record response consisted of asking one question; who was working- then telling them to check it out and if there was a problem, to call the police.  End of call.

Ms. Montanino wants to know why Mr. O’Leary, for all his ex-FBI and police training and specialized experience in law enforcement- before his retirement, declined to go to the sight directly himself, instead, asking his lone, unarmed Public Safety officer to handle the situation.  The gangs did show up and were chased away, by the police, but not before a noose was hung from the branch of a tree behind the building, according to both police and Town Public Safety reports about the incident.

Ms. Montanino also asked why in all three cases, an extension of the waiver was applied for, many months before the waivers had even expired.  For example, the first waiver listed the duration from 3/09 to 3/11. Yet the second waiver was applied for and obtained for the period 11/09 to 10/31/11.  The third waiver was granted for the period May 2011 through April 30, 2012.

"These appointments are supposed to be temporary, why is this going on for years now?"
Ms. Montanino asked. "They don't even wait for the waivers to expire, they just reapply.  Why? Does any one really believe that in this time of record unemployment there are no other experienced persons who could do this job, that are not already receiving a State pension?"

Ms. Montanino asked.  "Are they still looking for a non-pensioned replacement ?  I think not, if they are applying for new O'Leary waivers before they even expire."

No Board member responded to the information contained in the package of documents Ms. Montanino gave to the Board members at a Town Board meeting over a year ago in August, 2010.  Ms. Montanino wants to know why nothing has been done about alleged forged instruments, unauthorized permits and other anomalies and asks how Mr. O'Leary could be on any Board related to ethics.  The documents are all here...you can decide for yourself.

An E-mail to Board Member, Trish Bergin-Weichbrodt, for comment was not returned at time of publication.